Anyway, I\u2019ve lost my temper twice (now three times) with businesses this week. Once was with my bank with a prolonged and painful interaction with several episodes of phone tag. It started simply with a long phone call last week about changing a bank account. Perhaps I should have been made suspicious by the very young sounding man (boy) who was helping me, and by the fact that he had to keep putting me on hold to check things with his supervisor. In any event, my phone app accounts didn\u2019t look anything like I expected during the week. My attempts to contact the bank were an exercise in futility. With every phone call, I was put on hold for half an hour before even speaking to a human. There was an automated AI voice that asked me to state what I wanted but somehow it never matched the options I was given. In any event, it couldn\u2019t understand \u201cyour call centre person screwed me around\u201d so I was forced to remain on hold. When a human finally responded, they refused to do anything until I proved who I was. This involved saying \u201cmy voice confirms my identity\u201d to the same AI as I\u2019d had trouble with before. Needless to say, it refused to acknowledge me, having got the pip after our previous interaction. The human then tried to help by suggesting I use my PIN number instead, which sounded like a fine idea until the disembodied AI said my PIN didn\u2019t have enough numbers. There was no way I could see to get back to the human to find out what was going on, and I ended by accidentally hanging up, rendering the whole interaction a complete waste of time. I tried ringing again but I was again faced with another half hour on hold so gave up. By this time I was so cross I looked seriously for a couple of days into switching banks. However, a little calm reflection on the enormous faff this would entail made me give up on the idea and in the end I emailed them instead, which I suppose is what they preferred in the first place. Don\u2019t take on the banks is my advice! They don\u2019t make their enormous profits by being soft.<\/p>\n
I had more luck with the other business that annoyed me. At this time of year, I start ordering gifts for the various organisations I work with, as a thank you for the staff that make my life easier during the year. One of these companies that specialises in gift baskets, that I\u2019ve used in the past, were advertising a promotion that you get a free gift if you order a certain value of baskets by this Friday. There was a little asterisk by the price amount, but I couldn\u2019t see anywhere what this referred to. Presumably there were terms and conditions but surely it was pretty clear cut what was on offer?<\/p>\n
Anyway, I made my orders, and requested my free gift. The reply came quickly:
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_1026.jpeg?resize=525%2C165&ssl=1\")
Ah, OK, that\u2019s what the asterisk was about! It was still frustrating, and I replied quickly:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_1027.jpeg?resize=300%2C120&ssl=1\")
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_1028.jpeg?resize=525%2C70&ssl=1\")
OK, maybe a bit childish, but it made me feel better, and I gave it up as a bad job, and moved on with my life. Later that afternoon, however, I checked my emails again, and found this.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was about to write a post on losing my temper with businesses, \u00a0but then I got locked out of my WordPress account for no reason I could see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-3e9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5887,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/04\/the-end-of-the-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":0},"title":"The end of the road","author":"Interloper11","date":"December 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Hyde to Middlemarch. Horizontal wind, dodging the rain, for 27 kms. Discovered that cow jobbies smell much worse than those of sheep, especially when it\u2019s being blown past your nose at high speed. Got to Middlemarch by lunchtime, West Coast whitebait fritters at the Tap and Dough, an Emerson\u2019s pub.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/F1F9248F-F734-428C-9F6D-0FF5C6629992-e1607047860869-225x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4026,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/10\/temper\/","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":1},"title":"Temper","author":"Interloper11","date":"January 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Just saw a couple of Royal Spoonbills having a go at each other. Well, to be fair, it looked like one was the main aggressor, although I didn\u2019t see what the other bird did to raise its ire before I got there. The angry bird looked quite majestic, with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/599262E1-10FE-4F48-95C3-D92878FD919D-233x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3476,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/16\/gym-escape-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":2},"title":"Gym escape update","author":"Interloper11","date":"October 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Strangely enough, my little temper tantrum has resulted in more thoughtful treatment. Who knew? My daughter\u2019s application to cancel her membership has been backdated to the day she first inquired, and I just have to pay a lump sum of $22, with no reinstatement of automatic payments. I had grand\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4240,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/16\/news-flash-or-times-they-are-a-changing\/","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":3},"title":"News flash (or: Times, they are a changing)","author":"Interloper11","date":"February 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A chocolate fish for anyone who figured out my struggles with overheating in bed this summer was an early sign of menopause. I\u2019ve hesitated to post about this, but in honour of my Mum who went through it and never talked about it, and because I\u2019m doing a gyne list\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":548,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/06\/provence\/","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":4},"title":"Provence","author":"Interloper11","date":"October 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"First day of our cycling trip around the Luberon. 42 kms across the plains. No hiccups apart from when the GPS tried to send us across a bridge just before lunch which was closed for renovations. So different from walking or cycling trips I\u2019ve done in the past, trying to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/F6396F86-5749-4C91-ABCC-81D1B917E34F-225x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":382,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/14\/patriot\/","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":5},"title":"Patriot","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"So, a nine year old Australian girl is being pilloried for her peaceful protest in not standing up for the national anthem. She sounded quite sensible in her newspaper interview - concerned about the government\u2019s treatment of Australia's indigenous people, as demonstrated in their anthem \u201cAdvance Australia Fair\u201d ie may\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_1029.jpeg?resize=525%2C235&ssl=1\")
So, I\u2019m pleased but also feeling a little sheepish. Have I been vindicated or have I just been rewarded for throwing my toys out of the cot? I hope I haven\u2019t given the unfortunate Amy a bad day. In any event, I plan to order something else, just to show there are no hard feelings.
\nI\u2019ve repeatedly said on these pages that I\u2019m no Karen. Is it a case of the lady doth protest too much, methinks? <\/em>Am I becoming a dreaded \u201cI want to see the manager!\u201d person as I get older?
\nI looked after a lovely older lady called Karen yesterday, she was very sweet and smiled an enormous amount, possibly excessively under the circumstances (that is, about to have a colonoscopy). She was very amiable, if a bit vague. Yes, it\u2019s possible she was in the early stages of dementia, but you couldn\u2019t imagine a less Karenesque person than this delightful woman. I hope the name loses this association soon, but I suspect not soon enough to save it from extinction.<\/p>\n